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Google Maps Now Cover Whole World
GregBryant writes "They haven't blogged it yet, but maps.google.com has added some additional scaling-out, and maps of the entire world are available. Only country names so far (except in the US, Canada & UK) but it's still nice to finally click back & forth between the Satellite imagery and some real maps, even if their proportions don't quite match."
Getting satellite views of physiographic features from a readily available source is truly one of the best things to come from the internet. The only downside to the Google satellite images is that the highest resolution images cover metropolitian areas. This is great for folks who use it for urban planning, environmental impact assessments, historic studies, etc., it doesn't do much for geologists or geographers. Still, it is free.....
As a geologist it is nice to have aerial tools on line, especially when some of the other taxpayer funded sources of data have been taken offline by private companies. While I don't object to paying for data produced by private companies, I get a bit steamed with the idea that I have to pay *twice* for government-generated data. I understand the necessity to save the taxpayers money, but in the case of topographic, DEM, and DLG sources generated by the government, we have already paid for most of the cost of production; hosting is a fraction of cost for agencies such as the USGS.
Even if hosting were a significant cost, paid advertising could cover the cost and provide a good income for any company interested in providing the service for the government. The fees that some of these charge for taxpayer-subsidized data is rediculous.
Thanks again to Google.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
If I zoom in to a certain magnification, the labels of Belgium and the Netherlands are switched.. if I zoom further in, it's correct.. I do wonder what plans google has with their expansion to europe..
On a side note, am I the only one who notices that dragging the zoom bar's handle has a smooth (fatbits or whatever one calls it) zooming effect* now?
Firefox users need not apply; I see it on IE only so far, so I'm guessing it uses script and their zoom "Microsoft extension to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)." (rough translation: it's a non-standardized property)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
If you are a geologist urban planner, or historian, why can't you buy satellite imagery? You'd get well-specified data, and not just some pictures from an unknown source. The cost of the data should be inconsequential if you have any kind of a budget. Having to pay twice for data from tax-funded sources is outrageous, but it doesn't make your life harder.
What I'm trying to say, professionals might have a use for this, but it shouldn't benefit them that much. On the other hand, if you are about to go hiking or hunting, or skiing, or fishing, then this is your only chance to see the area where you are going before you get there. It's also a great addition to driving directions. Would be even better if the imagery was real-time, or near real-time.
They didn't before? I don't suppose you saved a picture.
So they botched the projection and that became noticeable once you got as far north as Anchorage. I know that's a pain in the butt for you Alaskans, but somehow I find it kind of cool anyway. I've made a lot of bugs in my career, but I've never managed to let the curvature of the earth screw something up.
I tell junior programmers that the reason I can fix problems faster than they can is that I've already made every mistake they can possibly make. Somebody at Google has managed to screw something up in a way I never have. I bow to them.
A lot of big cities are already gathering images and info (including satellite imagery) and making them available. Portland, OR (big?) has Portland Maps. Not as slick as Google, but it sure would be neat if google listed links to other map/info sources for a region you're looking at on their map. I think listing relevant links is something they can handle. Paris Metro? Utah Topo? Disneyland bathrooms?
A beginners' guide to Portland, OR?
The maps can be nice and useful, but why the satellite view?
Aerial views of large physiographic features is essential for watershed studies, landslide assessments, earthquake risk evaluations, etc.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Google may be full of very smart people but they still can't geliminate the Mercator projection distortion (although this is an aesthetic gripe) Google Maps is a clever web app that gets around many of the limitations of the browser, but I'd like to see a rich client, something like the 3D virtual globe Earth from Snow Crash perhaps? It doesn't have to be real time but it'd rock if it was - even if it was time delayed. I'd pay USD$5 a month for that, mainly for the eye candy. Anyone else interested?
I wonder what bit of US government paranoia caused this:9 6&spn=0.008122,0.008690&t=k&hl=en
9 4&spn=0.008122,0.008690&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.889145,-77.0087
but not this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.897502,-77.0365
It is interesting how they dealt with certain political issues. Kashmir is a bunch of dashed lines. Israel, too. Taiwan is labelled as such. The only thing that really throws me is Hong Kong. I thought that was officially part of China for the last 5 years.. I can't figure out what is going on with cyrus and the many lines through it. Anyone know what's up with that?
I suspect that google may license their data/technology, if not buy them up altogether.
According to their website, map24 are already cooperating with google.
I've been working on a full-earth terrain renderer for the last year, similar in style to Keyhole or Worldwind. The addition of worldwide outlines on google is wonderful, because yesterday afternoon I finally started to add a google maps data source to my application. Until now, it limited to WMS servers such as http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov./
It's not nearly complete yet, because I still haven't properly handled the projection google uses (so the image is off near the poles), and it breaks at high detail levels, but these should be easily fixed within the next couple days. It should easily scale to the best data Google offers in the future.
There is one screenshot at the bottom of the page. The quality is fairly low, but that's because it's being rendered on a 5 year old laptop (I'm currently away from home).
http://cs.ucsb.edu/~richards/terrain/
I have no idea if I'll ship this with google maps support (since it is against their TOS), but it was fun to do.
After heavy pressure from Israeli lobbyists, the US Congress enacted "shutter control" specifically for Israel in 1997. Satellites using US technology aren't permitted to image Israel with a resolution of greater than 2 meters per pixel. That's why the images of Israel are so lousy.
Certain areas are blacked out on the satellite view, quite a bit less creative than the fuzzing an overlaying of the roof images in the instances you give. Anyone in the area would know what the blacked out images were- and all it'd take would be someone physically going there to find out if they weren't a local.
You might as well put a sign on the damn imagery: "Terrorists strike HERE!"
I wish they'd at least be creative like stitching in surrounding countryside or somesuch so it's not so obvious that they're covering up for this sort of thing out of National Security requirements.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I used maps.google.com during a recent home-buying experience, and it was very useful. It's easier to see the different residential and industrial areas for neighborhoods one is not familiar with. It's also pretty easy to spot apartment complexes, parks, golf courses, and how close a home is to a highway.
One can also compare lot sizes to get an idea of residential density, the number of homes with pools (I live in Phoenix, so pools are very common). Being able to switch easily between maps and images makes it easy to determine what that big parking lot is a part of, such as a mall or a mental health facility. Fortunately, the images for Phoenix appear to be less than a year or two old.
Some people may prefer to live next to a mental health facility, some may prefer the mall. All this info makes it easier to informed decisions about whether or not you want to live someplace before making the decision so schedule a home visit. Granted, it didn't always work out, I remember driving up to one place and telling the realtor to keep driving.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I'm going to cut their balls off for this:& spn=51.280426,113.818359&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.179343,5.097656
(Take a look at the Netherlands.)
And as a new advantage, they've changed the constant long/lat ratio to cos(latitude). You'll notice that now if you zoom in on Anchorage, AK, the streets are at right angles -- which they weren't when this week's earlier Google Maps posting was made.
From the map24 site: 'Due to the new cooperation between Google, Inc, and Mapsolute GmbH, maker of the unique mapping portal Map24.com, it is now possible to search for city maps in all European Google search engines. If you enter a city name into Google.co.uk, the first result list entry is a special link to Map24.com that brings up the corresponding city map. On the result page, for sure, the full set of the rich Map24 options is available to the users.'